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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, June 12, 2014 | 6 Spotlight "Connected to your Community" Sheridan journalism grads compete on world stage by Abigail Cukier Special to the Beaver A screenshot of the Sheridan data journalism project that is up for a Global Editors Network's award against the New York Times, Mother Jones and others. | photo courtesy Sheridan College Times? They are all nalists for the Global Editors Network's (GEN) 2014 Data Journalism Awards, which are supported by the Knight Foundation and Google. The president of the GEN awards jury is Paul Steiger, who was managing editor of the Wall Street Journal for more than 15 years. "It's pretty amazing," said Sheridan's Online News Production course professor Cheryl Vallender, adding some of the keys to success cited by the jury were newsrooms that had strong data journalism departments or freelancers who had spare time to work on stories. "Here we are getting nominated. We are a college classroom. We don't have a big budget and are using a WordPress account and free, online tools." Data journalism is the process of analyzing large data sets to create a news story. Journalists use open data, which is freely available online and analyze it with open source tools. Visualizations like infographics are used to help explain the data and the data is turned into a story that can help readers better understand the information. W hat do 17 students from Sheridan College's broadcast journalism program have in common with staff from the New York Times, Mother Jones and the Tampa Bay Newsrooms all over the world are using data to tell some really important stories. When we were rst introduced to data journalism, I found it a bit daunting, so many statistics and so many numbers. As time went on, our instructors taught us to take that data, read it and use it to tell a story. Vanessa Naughton Sheridan graduate "Newsrooms all over the world are using data to tell some really important stories," said Vanessa Naughton, a student in the Online News Production course. "When we were rst introduced to data journalism, I found it a bit daunting, so many statistics and so many numbers. As time went on, our instructors taught us to take that data, read it and use it to tell a story. "I've used the skills we learned almost daily. The rst day of my internship, they needed someone to create an infographic and I felt con dent in creating one for a major Canadian broadcaster because of the skills I learned at Sheridan." The shortlisted project, Digitally Dependent Relationships: Gen Y Online, explores how technology has changed communication for millennials. Topics include the Blurred Lines between their social lives and online personas, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places (online dating), sexting and pornography, online bullying and the future of online communication. The project was done by the second-year class -- whose members are graduating this week. Vallender and her co-teacher Nicole Blanchett Neheli are travelling to Barcelona, Spain for the awards ceremony, which is today (Thursday). "My colleague, Nicole Blanchett Neheli, and I are beyond happy. We will be attending the awards ceremony in Barcelona," Vallendar told the Oakville Beaver. "It's hard to fail at something you're passionate about," said Naughton. "Week by week, it started developing into something more than just a school project. Our class really stepped up to the plate and was able to produce something incredible. "When I found out we were short-listed for the award I was shocked, I was aware our instructors submitted the project for an award, but never thought it would amount to anything. Just to be nominated amongst such prestigious media outlets is a huge honour." To view the GEN award nominees, visit www. globaleditorsnetwork.org/programmes/data-journalism-awards. To view the Sheridan project, visit http://ddrgenyonline.com. NEIL OLIVER Vice ­President and Group Publisher DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Halton Region Editor in Chief Volume 52 | Number 70 447 Speers Road, Oakville ON (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Editorial Department: (905) 632-0588 Advertising Department (905) 845-3824 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4444 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 DANIEL BAIRD Director of Advertising ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor